Overview

As a part of supporting Entrepreneurship, we plan on building a startup to market our therapeutic. We are also working on patenting our current idea and Antibody design to safeguard our intellectual Property. Dengue has no therapeutic in the market, so this will be the first of its kind, giving ABDEN an edge over all the current methods of treatment of Dengue. Some healthcare companies have already expressed their interest in collaborating with AbDEN to make this project an actual therapeutic. They intend to help us out in terms of testing our product and manufacturing it. Our institute's startup incubation and innovation center has also expressed their interest in helping us build our startup.

Objective of the startup

Our startup AbDEN focuses on producing affordable, effective, pan-serotype-neutralizing recombinant antibody fragment therapy against Dengue, which does not cause ADE. Our vision is to establish ourselves as a promising and profitable business in the pharmaceutical sector by offering synthetic biology solutions in the treatment of dengue, and other neglected tropical diseases. We aim to eradicate deaths due to these NTDs from the face of this planet by creating effective and affordable therapeutics.

Structure of our startup

A suitable structure is required to complete all the tasks in an organized and effective manner. The majority of our team members hold important positions at the organization and are directly connected to the business idea. However, because of the degree to which our experience and technical knowledge are limited, we also need experienced individuals in several crucial areas inside our startup.

We need the following 5 licenses to run our company successfully

Market Analysis

Dengue fever is the most widely spread mosquito-borne viral disease. It is commonly found in tropical countries like India, but has expanded its reach to over 120 countries. Despite its ill effects, there is no cure for this disease yet.
Global incidence of this disease has grown extensively, putting half of the world's population at risk. Only vector control measures are available to combat this infection.
100-400 million infections occur annually and many more go undiagnosed.
Every year, the number of dengue cases have been increasing in India, bringing more and more attention to this disease.

The treatment market for Dengue is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028. Data Bridge Market Research analyzes that the market is growing with a CAGR of 25.5% in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028 and is expected to reach USD 3,048.63 million by 2028 from USD 506.52 million in 2020. Strategic initiatives by market players and advent of mass vaccination programmes for dengue treatment are likely to be the key drivers for the growth of this market.

Competitive Landscape and Dengue Treatment Market Share Analysis
Dengue treatment market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, production sites and facilities, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product trials pipelines, product approvals, patents, product width and breadth, application dominance, technology lifeline curve. The above data points provided are only related to the company’s focus related to the dengue treatment market.

The major companies providing dengue treatment market are Mylan N.V, Pfizer Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. Perrigo Company plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited, Fresenius Kabi USA, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., ABIVAX, Aurobindo Pharma, Baxter, EMERGEX VACCINES, Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC, Sanofi and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited among others.

Strategic initiatives by market players with capital investment for dengue research are bridging the gap between dengue and its treatment, increasing competition for our startup.

DengVaxia
DengVaxia is the only dengue vaccine available in the market at the moment.
As of 2021, one version is commercially available, known as CYD-TDV, sold under the brand name Dengvaxia. The vaccine is only recommended for those who have previously had dengue fever or populations in which most people have been previously infected. The value of the vaccine is limited by the fact that it may increase the risk of severe dengue in those who have not previously been infected.

In December 2018, Merck and Instituto Butantan, Sao Paulo, Brazil announced a collaboration agreement that they will develop a novel vaccine to protect against dengue virus. They have attained some right from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for the development of live attenuated tetravalent vaccines (LATV).

There are several other vaccine candidates in development including live attenuated, inactivated, DNA and subunit vaccines.

SWOT Analysis

Risk Assessment

An effective way to find and weigh potential threats to the success of a project or goal is through risk assessment. Starting a business carries a number of hazards; it is crucial to thoroughly analyze each risk in order to understand how our project will perform in the future. Here, a risk rating from 1 to 5 indicates varying degrees of risk.

It would be risky to take on this enterprise as students, but with the right support from incubators and the industry, it would be possible to succeed.

Product validation

While working on our Human Practices, we met more than 40 project stakeholders and integrated their advice in our project. This has helped us to shape our project in a very human-centric manner. We have had meetings with Academicians, Industrialists and members of Society to obtain their inputs on how we can make this project a reality. All the advice and improvements which we could not integrate in our project within the timeframe of an iGEM Cycle have been mentioned in our Future Implementation page.

Patenting Strategy

In the modern, globally integrated economy, intellectual property rights are a necessary instrument. One of the objectives for sustainable development outlined by the Indian government is to promote innovation.
We spoke to our Primary Project Investigator, Prof Srinivas Hotha, regarding the IP rights of our project. Prof Hotha guided us on the same and we expect to file for an ideation patent soon.

Financial Model

Financial strategy is crucial for the development of a successful business, so we must always have a clear plan in place before moving forward with incubators and partners. The prototype has not yet been developed to its full potential. However, we have achieved this by using an arbitrary value to illustrate the strategy. The value will be substituted when we actually assess the costs. Pharmacy Council of India uses an uniform profit margin for all calculations involving wholesaler and pharmacist margins.
We assume that the cost of manufacture and packaging will be 20 rupees

With a 30% business profit, the minimum selling price of the goods is now set at Rs. 26.

MRP = Rs.60/-

MRP excluding GST = Rs. 53.57

Pharmacy cost is Rs. 42.84

Price for Wholesaler: 38.57 rupees

Money in Hand hence equals Rs. (38.57-26)/- = Rs.12.57/-

Now, for every product, Rs. 3 will go toward staff pay, Rs. 2.57 toward promotions, Rs. 5 toward research and development, and Rs. 2 toward extra expenses. Therefore, if sales are properly managed when our setup is complete, this model will show profits and successful operation of the start-up.

Targets and Timeline

We have set goals and objectives for the next few years and have planned to develop our products while adhering to all regulations throughout the next nine years. Being a therapeutic project which has a clinical application, some of these targets may seem to be bold and challenging. However, with the right guidance, support, and determination, we plan to make it a reality